HistoryOfTheAML

The Australian Monarchist League has its original roots in the Monarchist League in Australia which was founded in 1943.

The push towards a republic meant that monarchists were faced with the necessity to provide a rational opposition and as a consequence the League was re-formed fifty years later in 1993 as a totally Australian organisation geared to defend the Australian constitution and what had become the Australian monarchy. Originally starting off with around 30 people, mainly elderly, it soon built up into a membership of thousands. Today the League is Australia’s largest member-based Monarchist organisation. The League refused to water down its stand for the Crown and its defence of the Queen when under attack and was thus excluded from any involvement in the official government funded NO committee in 1999. However, the League conducted its own campaign which concentrated on country areas and outer suburban Labor electorates as well as smaller States all of which appeared to lack support from the Sydney-centric NO committee which seemed to place their faith in the ‘blue-rinse’ Liberal electorates of the major cities.

The League knew that many of these Liberal electorates were rife with yuppie-type republicans whereas the country areas were solidly behind the monarchy as were the outer suburban Labor electorates which, although generally Labor voters, were actually social conservatives and traditionalist and were against the very concept of a republic. We knew this because many members of the League came from these areas.

The results of the referendum clearly showed that, whereas an overall majority in the ‘blue-rinse’ Liberal electorates voted for a republic, the country and the outer city suburban Labor heartland in both New South Wales and Victoria, voted for the monarchy. Similarly with all of the smaller states. The League, although having gone deeply into debt, was vindicated by this result and, despite all the hyperbole of political monarchists, is even today recognised by many in these areas as having saved Australia from becoming a republic.

From 2000 the League has conducted an ongoing campaign opposing political, media, and business advertising attempts to ridicule the Queen and to oppose ‘republicanism by stealth’ i.e. by removing the outward signs of the monarchy’s sovereignty. Today, there is rarely an attempt to disparage the monarchy due to our pro-active campaigns since the referendum.

The several visits to Australia of the younger royals have started to recreate the emotional bond with the monarchy that Australians had once enjoyed. This is particularly so amongst younger generations who have enthusiastically embraced not only our links with the Royal family but also our system of constitutional monarchy with its inbuilt checks and balances thus ensuring a stability of governance rarely seen in republics.

The Australian Monarchist League has been in the forefront of this change. The League itself has undergone a metamorphosis with most of our members now being under 40 and with many of our office bearers in their twenties. With our young spokespersons dominating the airwaves, the media now view the League as the major constitutional monarchist organisation in the country.

The Australian Monarchist League is an incorporated association democratically based on members (with annually elected officers) and is totally reliant upon voluntary support from members and supporters. We receive no funding from government or business.

Should you wish to contribute to, or join or become involved in some way with the Australian Monarchist League and to help it continue to grow, please click on relevant links within this site.